Well-known to his contemporaries as Pattabhi
Sitaramayya and better still as Dr. Pattabhi
and now chiefly remembered as the historian
of the Indian National Congress, Dr, B. Pattabhi
Sitaramayya was born on 24 December 1880 in
a village called Gundugolanu (Ellore taluka,
West Godavari district) in a poor Andhra Niyogi
Brahmin family. His father, Subrahmanyam, was
the Karnam of the village, getting a monthly
salary of about eight rupees only. Pattabhi
was the third of the four children of his parents.
His father passed away when he was only a child
of four or five and the burden of bringing up
the children fell upon his mother, Gangamma.
Young Pattibhi had his traditional early education
in his own village. He passed his Matriculation
examination in the first class in 1894 from
a Christian Mission School at Ellore. Then he
joined the C.M.S.Noble College, Masulipatnam,
and did his F.A., again in the first class,
in 1896. Here he had the good fortune of having
R. Venkataratnam Naidu as his teacher, who greatly
inspired him by his uprightness and devotion
to duty.
Subsequently, he moved over to Madras and joined
the Chirstian Coolege with the help of a small
grant from a friendly quarter and the Singaraju
Subba Rao Pantulu scholarship. The same year
he married Rajeswaramma, daughter of Ganjam
Venkataratnam Pantulu of Kakinada, leading lawyer
of the place and a fairly rich man. With his
help he joined the Madras Medical College and
took his M.B. & C. M. degree in 1901.
Soon after his education Dr. Pattabhi moved
to Masulipatnam and set up practice as a physician(1906).
That was the age when enlightened intellectuals,
whether lawyers or doctors, could not keep away
from the rising tide of the national movement.
When the partition of Bengal (1905) sent a wave
of protest throughout the country, the leaders
of Mauslipatnam including Dr. Pattabhi strove
hard to awaken the national feelings of the
people through the press and by organizing lectures
and Harikathas.
In 1907 Dr Parrabhi and other leading citizens
of Masulipatnam resolved to raise funds for
National College. Their efforts bore fruit and
the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala was founded in 1910.
Pattabhi himself acted as its Secretary for
several years.
The youthful Dr. Pattabhi was at first inclined
towards extremism and became an admirer of the
Lal-Bal-Pal school (i.e., of Lala
Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chnadra
Pal). Ere long he became a member of the Home
Rule League of Dr. Annie Besant and ultimately
found his true place as a Gandhite. He reconciled
himself to a peaceful struggle under Gandhijis
banner of Satyagraha.
Dr. Pattabhi made Masuliptnam the centre of
his activities. Here he started, in 1919, an
English nationalist weekly called the Janmabhumi.
Through this he propagated the ideas of non-violence,
Satyagraha, boycott of foreign goods, advantages
of the cooperative movement, etc. he strongly
advocated the starting of Banking and Insurance
Companies by Indians to prevent what he called
an annual drain of a hundred crores of
rupees. The Janmabhumi continued functioning
till 1930.
To propagate the cooperative movement in Andhra
he started a Telugu periodical called Andhra
Sahakara Patrika. For some years he was elected
a member of the Municipal Council of Masulipatnam.
Sever4al leading financial institutions owe
their origin to his inspiration and guidance.
At Masulipatnam he started the Andhra Bank (1923),
the Bharatha-lakshmi Bank (1929), the Andhra
Insurance Company (1925) and the Hindusthan
Indusrance Company (1935).]
Dr. Pattabhis association with the Indian
National Congress goes back to his college days,
when one of its annual sessions was held at
Madras in 1898. He took part in the Andhra movement
since 1913, when he made a powerful plea for
a University for the Andhras and advocated the
creation of a separate Andhra Province. He wrote
several articles in the Hindu and also a book
on the need for a lingusitic re-distribution
of Provinces to strengthen Indian Nationalism.
In 1916 he became a member of the All India
Congress Committee. In
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that year he gave up his medical practice.
He remained a member of the AICC up to 1952.
He was elected a member of the Congress Working
Committee in the years 1929-30, 1931, 1934-36,
1938,1939,1940-46 and 1948.
When Gandhiji started non-cooperation in 1920,
Pattabhi brought out a booklet on the subject.
During the years 1924 and 1925 he was actively
engaged in carrying out the constructive programme
of Gandhiji. When tempers were running high
against the Simon Commission and when Simon
visited Madras in February 1928, Dr. Pattabhi
organized a demonstration against the visit
and was taken into custody and later released.
On the issue of Dominion Status Vs. Complete
Independence, Dr. Pattabhi, like Jawaharlal
Nehru, threw his weight in favour of the latter.
He was elected President of the Andhra Purna
Swarajya Sangam. In the Calcutta session of
the Congress (1928) he voted against the All
Party Resolution demanding Dominion Status.
On the eve of the Salt Satyagraha campaign (March
1930) Dr.Pattabhi toured the villages of the
East Krishna district and spoke to the villagers
about the significance of the campaign. He himself
broke the Salt Law in April 1930 by leading
a batch of volunteers to the sea-shore near
Masuliptnam and making salt. A meeting was held
at Masuliptnam and a small salt packet was auctioned
for Rs. 15/-.
While addressing a public meeting at Masulipatnam
on 5 January 1932 in defiance of a prohibitory
order, Dr. Pattabhi was arrested and sentenced
to imprisonment for a year and a fine of Rs.
1,100/-. In October 1933, he was again arrested
while picketing a shop selling foreign cloth
and sentenced to six months imprisonment
and a fine of Rs. 500/-. In 1936 he presided
over the All India States Peoples
Conference at Karachi and strongly pleaded for
their rights, including sending representatives
to the Central Legislature. He was again made
President of the AISPC in 1939 and 1946-48.
Towards the close of 1938 Gandhiji nominated
him for the Presidentship of the Congress when
there was a growing extremist wing in the Party
under5 the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose,
but he was defeated in the election. Gandhiji
then made the famous statement,Pattabhis
defeat is my defeat.
When Gandhiji launched his campaign of Individual
Satyagraha (1940-41), Dr. Pattabhi was chosen
to participate in it but he was arrested and
detained from 19 March to 1 November 1941. Gandhiji
followed this with his Quit India
call in 1942 and there was a mass agitation.
Dr. Pattabhi was arrested only in June 1945.
In December 1946 he was elected to the Constituent
Assembly from Madras to work out a Constitution
under the Cabinet Missions Plan. In 1948
he was elected President of the Jaipur session
of the Indian National Congress.
In Independent India he was honoured with the
Governship of Madhya Pradesh in July 1952, which
post he held till June 1957. He passed away
on 17 December 1959.
It is significant that though Dr. Pattabhi was
a popular Congress leader and held in high esteem
by Ganghiji, he did not hanker after office
and did not take part in elections to the Provincial
Assemblies or the Central Legislative. He was
primarily a patriotic intellectual, a little
proud and uncompromising. He took pleasure in
working for the Congress organization and in
writing and publishing books. His earliest publication
was National Education (1912), of
which K. Hanumantha Rao was co-author.
In the subsequent years he wrote and published
the following: Indian Nationalism
(1913), The Redistribution of Indian Provinces
on a Linguistic Basis (1916), Non-Cooperation
(1921), Khaddar (1931). History
of the Indian National Congress (Vol.
1 appearing as the Golden Jubilee Volume in
1935, and Vol. 2 in 1947), Gandhi and
Gandhism, Why Vote Congress,
The Consitutions of the World, Some
Fundamentals of Indian Problems, Economic
Conquest of India, Gandhism and
Socialism, Feathers and Stones,
Sixty Years of Congress and Hindy
Home Rediscovered.
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